GERMAN OPPOSITION CRITIC ATTACKS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE

BERLIN, July 17, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The pregnant unmarried mother whose appointment as family critic for Germany’s main opposition party was heavily criticised two weeks ago, has announced that she may marry after all—while criticising proposals for homosexual marriage as an “attack on marriage and the family”.  Katharina Reiche, 28, was named “family policy” critic by Edmund Stoiber, leader of the Christian Social Union party (CSU). Complaints from Germany’s Catholic bishops this week over the party’s use of Christian nomenclature, prompted Stoiber to change Reiche’s title to “youth and women” critic.  The CSU’s policy book says: “Marriage and the family are at the centre of our policy. They are the natural way of life and the basic pillar of a free society that displays solidarity.” But by choosing a young career woman who is expecting her second child with her live-in partner, reported the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, Stoiber appeared to be signaling a change in his party’s attitude to marriage, family and working mothers.  Although Reiche recently supported “increased rights” for homosexuals, she also backed a legal appeal by conservative states Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia against a homosexual marriage law passed last summer, before the courts today.  To read Daily Telegraph coverage see:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F07%2F17%2Fwgerm17.xml and:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/07/04/wgerm04.xml